Travel-Lens

Day 14-17

August 2-5

Amsterdam, Holland

      I think that the worst trait that we kept after sneaking out of England and starting our own world is that one that makes us think that the world is ours and just for us.  The one that keeps us from understanding that things, all things, in different countries are not better or worse but different.  The sooner the rookie traveler understands this, the better off they will be and they will simply enjoy themselves more.

            We had to go to the train station to get the overnight train tickets from Amsterdam back down south to Milano.  The typical setting; it was filled with traveling high school and college students on holiday trying to go somewhere last minute but not wanting to pay the bill.  They will stay in line for hours to have an attendant tell them that one of their options is to pay a couple hundred Euros to take the fast train to where ever it may be they are going but they opt out for their second choice, a very slow eight hour train ride with seven train changes.  In the end they are still at the train station trying to decide as to what they should do, only missing what this current city has to offer them.  You can’t blame them; they are just trying to stretch their money for as long as they can.  They will do anything to stay away from home and any responsibilities. They keep telling Mom and Dad that the debit card they gave them is still full.  Truth be told, they have been eating bread and water for days now, sleeping where ever they partied the night before, showering once a week if they can, and saving every penny they have to make it to the next location in a long line of cities meant for a summer long independence.  I, most of all, can’t say anything.  I did the same thing.  It made me the traveler I am today. 

            Today, with more experience and, most importantly, more money; I travel a little better.  We are taking the Hispeed train out of town with our very own sleeping room and room service.  What a Euro buys today.  But you have to do those other things in life to appreciate what other options there are out there.  I’ve slept upright in a chair during an overnight train, been kicked off as a stow-away and hidden in sleeping cars before so, it’s nice to have a little luxury once in awhile. 

            After watching the kids talk and fight about what city they should move to next, smelling days, if not weeks, of a lack of showered bodies, having them ask me questions after inhaling what seemed to be an entire carton of cigarettes, watching a local try to sell them bogus train tickets to “where ever they want to go” for practically nothing, and just getting hungry; we  purchased our “adult” tickets and went to Menneken Pis on the Damrak for some of the world’s best French Fries.

            We walked around town, and I mean around town, finally resting for drinks and Bitter Bollen on the Singel Centrum. This is one of my favorite spots in Amsterdam.  We tried to enter the house of Anna Frank but being that it is Late July-early August; there are tons of travelers and the typical tourist attractions are like Space Mountain at Disneyland with long lines zigged zagged in front of them all.  That’s the very reason why you do not visit any city just over night and expect to see everything.  We will try again in the morning. 

            We went to the Van Gogh museum again.  I go at least twice every time I’m in Amsterdam.  I get the Museum card, which allows me to enter dozens of attractions for free for a year.  When I time it right, I can use if for two vacation trips.

            For the most part, today was a time to remind those travelers with me that life is short and we need, no must, appreciate it.  We must not race through life expecting to be here tomorrow.  We must take time out to reflect about what it is we want and how to get it.  While in Europe I am capable of doing this by simply sitting in a square (local spot outside a café) having a drink and just thinking about life and all that it has given me. For me, for this trip, it’s appreciating the fact that a couple of my travelers happen to be my own mother and son.  To share with them what I love about this life style is an amazing gift. But most of all, sharing with them the philosophy that we need to appreciate that what we like or expect to find just wont be there; things are different all over.